|
 Thousands
of race fans dream of quitting their jobs, packing up their
belongings and moving to Charlotte, N.C. in hopes of finding work in
NASCAR. Crew chief Gary Cogswell is one man who chose to
pursue that dream.
The move to North Carolina was a gutsy one for this Michigan
mechanic, who had no leads or prospects when he arrived in the
Charlotte area in 1991. "I didn't know a soul when I got
here," Cogswell said. "I felt like I was a good mechanic,
so I knew I could
find a job working on cars somewhere. As far as having any friends
that could help me break into the sport, I didn't have
any." What Cogswell did have, in addition to his mechanic
skills, was a love for auto racing dating back to his childhood.
"When I was a kid, my dad worked on Super Modifieds at the old
Lansing (Spartan), Mich. Speedway and I always went along,"
Cogswell said of his early exposure to racing. "I was always a
'motorhead', tinkering on cars and working on engines as a
teen-ager. When I got older, I started helping a guy named John
Donovan, who raced at Spartan Speedway. That rekindled my interest
in working in racing, and after talking about it a lot, I finally
moved to Charlotte."
Finding work at a Charlotte-area car dealership, Cogswell spent his
spare time contacting race shops, searching for a break in NASCAR.
Cogswell's first job in the sport was an unpaid position, helping
out the No. 23 NASCAR Busch Series (NBS) team of Mark Rypien
Motorsports and driver Chad Little. Cogswell spent his days earning
a living, then headed over to the Rypien shops to work on cars each
evening.
When sponsorship help was found for the team, Cogswell was hired as
a full-time employee. The No. 23 team competed on a limited basis in
1993, then returned to run the full 1994 NBS campaign.
Starting the 1994 season with an impressive third-place finish at
Daytona International Speedway, Cogswell and Little went on to score
10 top-five and 14 top-10 finishes on their way to securing the
third spot in the final NBS points standings. The 1995 season was a
banner year for the duo, as they claimed back-to-back wins in the
first two events on the schedule at Daytona and Rockingham, N.C. By
season's end, Cogswell had led the team to six wins, 11 top-five and
13 top-10 finishes, resulting in a second-place points finish. The
1996 season was a bit of a disappointment after the successes of the
previous year. While the team did finish sixth in points, there were
no highlights that could compare to the season before. The team did
compete in several Winston Cup races that season, with plans to move
to Cup full-time in 1997. Cogswell says that, at the time, he
wasn't ready to make the leap to the next level of NASCAR racing, so
he left the Rypien organization at the end of the 1996 season.
"I still want to win a Busch Series championship,"
Cogswell said. "I enjoy having Sunday's off, and I just didn't
feel like it was the right move for me at the time." In 1997,
Cogswell moved over to head up the No. 34 Cicci-Welliver Racing team
with driver Mike McLaughlin. The team started the season strong,
qualifying second at Daytona. Later that year, the pair claimed a
win at New Hampshire International Speedway, followed soon after by
a victory at Watkins
Glen International raceway. The No. 34 team ended the season third
in the points standings, scoring a pole position at the final race
of the season in Homestead, Fla.
The 1998 season saw the Cicci-Welliver team picking up right where
it left off, as Cogswell and McLaughlin claimed the pole position
for the first Busch Series event of the year at Daytona
International Speedway. The Busch Series points lead bounced around
during the
early part of the season, with McLaughlin, Matt Kenseth and Dale
Earnhardt, Jr. all taking their turn at the top of the leaderboard.
The strength of the No. 34 team was displayed at Nashville Speedway
U.S.A in Tennessee, where a practice accident destroyed the team's
primary car. Qualifying the backup car with no practice time,
McLaughlin went on to win the event. In spite of their strong
showing, Cogswell and the Cicci-Welliver organization parted ways
late in the 1998 season. The crew chief moved over to BACE
Motorsports, where he had an opportunity to work with
former Busch Series champion, Johnny Benson, for the remainder of
the 1998 campaign.
In
1999, Cogswell had the opportunity to work with a third-generation
driver in Jason Jarrett, son of 1999 Winston Cup champion Dale
Jarrett. Despite his championship lineage, Jarrett and the No. 33
BACE Motorsports team struggled during the first half of the year.
After an accident at the California Speedway, the decision was made
to take Jarrett out of the car. For the remainder of 1999,
Cogswell had the unique opportunity to work with a number of
different drivers in the No. 33, including Hermie Sadler, Geoff
Bodine, Johnny Benson and Brad Leighton. At the end of the 1999
season, Cogswell made the decision to move over to Reiser
Enterprises, where he teamed with Matt Kenseth.
Cogswell's
streak of strong finishes at Daytona continued, as the partnership
yielded a victory in their very first race together in the first
race of 2000. Cogswell and Kenseth claimed another win at California
Speedway later that season, and the No. 17 Reiser Enterprises entry
had several strong runs with part-time driver Jason Schuler. When
Cogswell and Reiser chose to go their separate ways in the middle of
the 2000 season, Billy Jones father of driver Buckshot Jones and
owner of Buckshot Racing, immediately gave Cogswell a call. The crew
chief joined forces with Jones' organization, serving as Buckshot's
crew chief for the remainder of the year.
When
Petty Enterprises hired Buckshot to drive one of its Winston Cup
entries, Billy Jones elected to keep the Busch Series team intact.
With Todd Bodine behind the wheel, the team claimed back-to-back
wins at Rockingham, N.C. and Las Vegas, Nev., early in the 2001
season. Cogswell remained with Buckshot Racing until early September
of 2001, when he took the reins of the No. 36 GNC Live Well Racing
team for Welliver-Jesel Motorsports.
"Wayne
Jesel and I had talked about him becoming a car owner,"
Cogswell said. "It was always understood that, when he got his
operation up and running, I'd work for him. I assumed that it would
be 2002 before that happened, but when Wayne joined up with Scott
Welliver to become Welliver-Jesel Motorsports, that escalated the
process." Within three weeks of joining the No. 36 team and
driver Hank Parker Jr., Cogswell helped lead the team to only its
second top-10 finish of 2001, an eighth-place finish at Dover Downs
International Speedway in Delaware. Seven days later, Cogswell
coached Parker and the team to a runner-up finish at the inaugural
Busch Series event at Kansas Speedway. In the final seven
events of the 2001 season, the GNC Live Well team scored five top-10
finishes under Cogswell's watchful eye, ending the year 18th in the
NBS owners' points standings.
Making the switch from Chevrolet Monte Carlo's to Dodge Intrepids,
Cogswell and his crew worked feverishly during the off-season to get
new cars ready. With the personnel and equipment in place,
Cogswell feels the coveted NBS championship is an achievable goal in
2002.
Special
thanks to the StockCarFans
Newsletter for the bio! |
